On the eve of the official signing ceremony for the foundation of the SmartCity Malta project in Ricasoli, The Malta Independent on Sunday can reveal that the last formal step, the registration of the company with the Maltese financial authorities, was completed on Thursday, 19 April.

In fact, on Thursday, the company SmartCity (Malta) Ltd was registered with the Malta Financial Services Authority, with company number C41194. The company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association, signed by the Government and SmartCity representatives, were posted on the Authority’s website shortly after.

The Memorandum of Association of the company has as its primary object “to design, develop and implement information and communication technology and media clusters and related ancillary services.”

As Minister Austin Gatt explained in Parliament, upon formation of the company, Government received $20,000,000 worth of equity in the company out of the total $20,910,000 directly injected by SmartCity in the company.

The Memorandum establishes the shareholders of the new company, which are SmartCity Dubai FZ-LLC (a joint venture between Tecom Investments and Sama Dubai) and Malta Government Technology Investments Ltd (MGTIL), a fully Government-owned limited liability company.

The first directors on behalf of SmartCity Dubai are Falah Jamal Alsalman, Deepak Srinivas Padmanabhan and Fareed Abdulrahman. The first director appointed by MGTIL, representing the Government, is Claudio Grech.

SmartCity (Malta) Ltd has an authorised share capital of $300 million and will be the commercial vehicle through which the present derelict Ricasoli Industrial Estate will be transformed into a state-of-the-art ICT and Media Business Park.

The final foundation step of the project is expected to take place tomorrow in what is poised to be a remarkable signing ceremony, during which Minister Austin Gatt and Tecom Executive chairman Ahmed bin Byat will be inking the SmartCity Malta agreements.